Book Clubs Column by Julie Hale

Set in 1921, this elegantly crafted, quietly disturbing book Trevor's 29th tells the story of the Gaults, a Protestant family forced to leave Ireland and the country home they adore. Lucy, an only child, is doted upon by her mother and father, and when she disappears on the night before the family is set to leave, they are devastated. Captain Gault and his wife, Heloise, assume Lucy is dead...

When Letitia Davenant dies unexpectedly, her death becomes the first of three that summer. All together, these deaths form a kind of frame for this seamless tale of loss and reversal in the English countryside. William Trevor's 12th novel, Death in Summer, is a wonderfully evoked work of subtlety and insight. Often compared to Chekhov, Trevor lets us see the world as if through the very hearts...